Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
Skye
Imoaned as I woke, my entire body aching. I hadn’t thought sleeping on the steel bench in the cell would be a party, but I hadn’t imagined it would make my head throb and my limbs boneless. I attempted to swallow and almost choked. Had I been chewing on cotton?
Trying to sit up, I found my arms pinned to my sides. Blinking heavily, I forced my eyes open.
I wasn’t on the bench in the prison cell. I wasn’t in the prison cell at all.
Blinding light shone in my eyes that didn’t come from any sun, and my arms and legs weren’t heavy from sleep. They were strapped down.
Memories came rushing back to me. The imperial guards coming to the cell, Kolt disarming one and me diving for the blaster on the floor. Then sharp pain and nothing.
I squinted down at myself and saw that I was strapped to some kind of reclining bed or platform. “What the actual fu—?”
“Ah, you’re awake.”
The voice from the darkness wasn’t rough and hard-edged like the guards, but my gut told me I’d prefer them to whoever was behind the measured tones. I clamped my mouth shut, irritated with myself for revealing that I was conscious.
“Apologies for the way you were brought to me,” the voice continued, irritation clear in his clipped tone. “The plan was for you to be conscious. Not dragged in with blaster burns.”
I flinched at this. Blaster burns? I’d been shot? I couldn’t feel any wounds, but my entire body ached, so they could have been anywhere.
“I don’t blame you. I blame those thugs we call guards.” Anger seethed in his words. “They’ve been properly dealt with, though. That will not happen again, I assure you.”
I still hadn’t responded, and my gut instinct that this man was more dangerous than any of the imperial guards I’d encountered had only been confirmed. Whoever this was, he held power, and he didn’t like to be disobeyed.
The haze in my brain was clearing as the effects from being hit by a blaster faded. Maybe I could use my take on this stranger to my advantage.
“Who are you?” I asked.
Now it was the man’s turn not to respond, although I could hear him moving in the shadowy parts of the room. Okay, so he wasn’t going to reveal his name. He didn’t want to talk about himself, but he’d already talked about me.
“Why do you care so much that I not be hurt?”
A sigh. “You were not brought here to be shot at like a common criminal.”
You could have fooled me when I’d been pushed down the ship’s ramp in chains and forced into a prison cell. I guessed arguing wasn’t the way to get on this guy’s good side, though. Since I was restrained and about as vulnerable as possible, I should be smart and not antagonize him.
Stay calm, Skye. Do not piss off the guy in charge.
Keeping my cool had never been where I’d excelled.
My father had said I inherited my temper from my red-headed mother, but he never said that within earshot of my mom.
All I knew was that you had to stand up to bullies, and you had to defend your friends.
If that was being hot-headed, then so be it.
I’d been cool-headed enough to sneak onto countless imperial ships and into more than a few Zagrath supply containers. I’d never gotten caught once, and I’d been extra careful when meeting with the other women in our rebel group.
Not careful enough, I thought. Someone had known about us. Had known Jasmine was our leader. Had put her on a hit list—and then me.
The list. Was this part of the Zagrath plan to eliminate me as a threat?
“Then why was I brought here? Why was I abducted from Lexxona?”
More silence. This was getting annoying.
Before I could think of something else to ask that the mystery man would want to answer, he stepped into the light.
Most of the Zagrath I’d encountered had been imperial guards and the kind that didn’t rank high enough to get sent anywhere important. I’d never seen anyone on Lexxona who wasn’t in uniform and wasn’t much more than an entry-level soldier. But this guy was different.
First, he wasn’t young. Despite a face that had clearly been pulled and poked and augmented, I could tell he was old. Maybe it was his tightly stretched skin that made him look perpetually surprised that betrayed his age—and perhaps his importance.
I forced myself not to have a visible reaction to his obviously fake hair and unnaturally smooth, unnaturally tan skin. Even when he smiled, and his oddly puffy lips looked like they might split, I schooled my expression.
“The episode on Lexxona was regrettable.” He steepled bony fingers in front of his blue tunic. “But it’s so hard to control the variables when the Vandar get involved.” He shuddered. “Horrible brutes.”
Bold words from someone who had me strapped down like a lab animal. But maybe this was my way in. Maybe this was the way I could get him to talk.
“I never wanted Lexxona to make a deal with the Vandar.” This much, at least, was true. “A lot of us didn’t.”
He nodded his head slowly as he eyed me. “I don’t blame you. Look at what a mess they made.”
“Everything was fine before.” Not the full truth, since it hadn’t been fine to be controlled by the Zagrath.
He leaned closer. “So, you are not working with the Vandar you came here with?”
I took a breath through my mouth since the man reeked of chemicals and something fetid. “Hardly. He was one of the pricks who kidnapped my friend.”
His impossibly high eyebrows went even higher. “Yes, yes. Your friend. The one who flies with the Vandar horde. The one who was taken by the Qeth’rex.”
“She didn’t want to go,” I said. “She was taken against her will.”
More nodding. “That seems to be their way.” His face twisted into a gruesome scowl. “Undisciplined beasts.”
It was unsettling how much he knew about Jasmine. I hadn’t even mentioned her name, but he knew who I meant. That meant he knew exactly who I was and maybe what I’d done.
He patted my arm, his fingers shockingly cool. “Don’t worry. The Qeth’rex is the reason you and that Vandar are here. Unfortunately, we needed a compelling reason to draw him to us.”
“And that’s me?”
His laugh was oddly melodic. “No, no. The Vandar in the cell is the bait. You’re just the way we’re going to keep him in line until his Raas comes for him.”
“Me?” My surprise was genuine. “Why would I keep him in line? He doesn’t know me and, just between you and me, he doesn’t like me much.”
Another pat with his fish-belly fingers. “He’s a Vandar and you’re a female. From what I know of the creatures, that’s all it takes.”
I wouldn’t have considered myself a fan of the Vandar, but that seemed more than a bit insulting. Kolt might protect me because he’d been tasked to rescue me, but that was as far as it went.
“So, I’m in here with you…?” I asked, truly curious why they’d gone to the trouble of bringing me to an interrogation room or laboratory, or whatever this place was. If my role was to keep Kolt in line, I could hardly do it from far away.
The man’s expression darkened. “You were supposed to be brought in here to make the Vandar sweat, to make him think you were being interrogated or tortured, but that didn’t happen.”
“What do you mean?”
The sigh that escaped his pillowy lips was weary. “I mean that the incompetent guards shot him.” I drew in a sharp breath, but he didn’t seem to notice. “Only stunned, but he took a hard fall. Instead of worrying about you in the cell, he’s been unconscious this entire time.”
Well, that wasn’t good. How hard was his fall? As much as the Vandar annoyed me, he was the only ally I had, and I didn’t want to see him hurt.
“We’ve had a change of plans.” The Zagrath gave me another terrifying smile. “I’ll have to enlist you in a more active role than first expected.”
More active? Why did I have a feeling I was going to hate this plan?
“When you’re returned to the cell, I’d like you to convince the Vandar that you’re in love with him.”
I had to fight not to laugh out loud. We’d done nothing but argue since we’d laid eyes on each other. There was no way he’d believe I was in love with him, and no way I could even attempt to convince him without laughing myself to death.
The man must have noticed my hesitation because he tilted his head at me and blinked his translucent eyelashes slowly. “Or we could actually torture you.”